Scrapple
No matter where I end up in this world, I’ll never be able to deny my rural roots.
I was born and raised in Montour County, Pa. with parents who embrace their small town culture.
So why does the recent debate over “pink slime” feel like an attack on my rural Pennsylvania roots?
My mother and my boyfriend LOVE scrapple. They can’t get enough of it. While Mike prefers his scrapple fried, my mother takes a block of that stuff and a knife and just goes to town. (I, on the other hand, am not a fan, but I digress).
While many of you probably know what scrapple is, for those of you who don’t, here’s the Wikipedia definition:
“Scrapple, also known by the Pennsylvania Dutch name pon haus is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices. The mush is formed into a semi-solid congealed loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then panfried before serving. Scraps of meat left over from butchering, not used or sold elsewhere, were made into scrapple to avoid waste. Scrapple is best known as a rural American food of the Mid-Atlantic states (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland). Scrapple is found in supermarkets throughout the region in both fresh and frozen refrigerated cases.”
A.K.A. scrapple is the un-sanitized version of pink slime, which is “made from fatty bits of leftover meat that are heated, spun to remove the fat, compressed into blocks and exposed to ammonia to kill bacteria,” according to news reports.
That’s right, the food that has people across the country gagging and protesting is loved by many people in our state.
Which leads me to think, “Are they judging us?”
I mean, there are plenty of local delicacies “outsiders” don’t seem to partake in, but I guess it hurts a little bit turning on the television and seeing people talking about how disgusting our “local delicacy” should seem to everyone.
So, needless to say, I won’t be signing any online petitions to remove pink slime from my beef.
And if you’re grossed out by the concept, I wouldn’t recommend visiting my parents’ house.
